James Gunn has been hard at work developing Guardians of the Galaxy 2 since the first movie hit theaters last year. As with every sequel and new movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the cast for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is bound to expand behind the characters everyone loved in the original.

So far we know that Chris Pratt (Peter Quill/Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax the Destroyer), Vin Diesel as the voice of Groot, Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket Raccoon, Karen Gillan (Nebula), and Michael Rooker (Yondu) will all return in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, but according to a comment made by Gunn, there may not be many new actors joining them.

Over on his facebook, a fan stated their desire to see Starhawk, Adam Warlock, and Moondragon in the 2017 sequel, to which Gunn replied in a seemingly declarative fashion,

There is no way I would add that many new characters!

At first blush, it’s a relatively innocuous revelation – after all, Guardians of the Galaxy had a pretty large cast, and it’s likely most if not all characters not named Ronan will return. But his response is in fact quite interesting based on a few other comments he has made in the past. Gunn has made it clear that we will meet Star-Lord’s father, and he’s also stated he’ll be introducing one of his favorite characters to the MCU, so that is already one new character that will be added.

Gunn also made revealing comments to Screenrant.com while doing press junkets for Guardians of the Galaxy last year about the evolution of the team.

I love a lot of the other Guardians so I think about it quite a bit. I love… I love a lot of them and if I say one then all those fans of that one character are going to come out and then I might decide that character doesn’t work as well so we’ll see. We may have some Guardians we’ve already met…

The end of the above quote is interesting as Gunn hints that characters we already know could become full-time Guardians. Could Yondu make the jump from Ravager to Guardian? Could Nebula make a similar turn as her sister Gamora from her evil to good? Or is it possible that an Avenger could join the team? Only time will tell.

Gunn goes on to say that putting more females on the team is a goal of his for the sequel.

One of my true hopes is that we can have at least two women in the next iteration of the Guardians whenever that may be whether it’s the next movie or the next one after that, that we can break this thing of having one women in every [Marvel movie].

If Gunn holds true to his word that three new characters would be too many – and Gunn has to date never provided false information, going so far as to say “I have never lied to the fans” – than perhaps Quill’s father and the new female guardian will be the only new major additions to the cast. There were even rumors at one point that we would meet a female Guardian in Avengers: Age of Ultron, though that did not happen. Of course, it’s entirely possible that while that is the case now things could change in the rewriting stage – and Gunn himself has been candid that things are always liable to change – but it may give us some sense of what the sequel has in store.

Speculation on who will join the sequel will remain just that – speculation – until we start getting official casting, possibly as early as later this year. And of course, we won’t know anything for sure until the film hits theatres on May 5, 2017. Until then though, fans will no doubt eagerly theorize just who will join this loveable group of a-holes on their next adventure.

Source: Jame Gunn’s Facebook and Screenrant